Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Expelling the Dark
by DogeMaster
Summary: How would you like to get abducted by a hamster ball and get sent to a world full of freak talking Pokemon? How about being shoved into a problem, which might end in your painful death by the way. Join River, Emerald, and Ember on their adventures through darkness, space, and time.
1. Things were Normal Said nobody

"Morning, River!" my mom yelled into my ear, "Its time for school!" She was still brushing her teeth and she was dancing around my room on her toes picking up trash and choosing clothes for me. It almost looked like she was dancing around on hot coals.

"Here you go sweetie," my mom handed me the stack of clothes she wanted me to wear. "Now you should go downstairs and eat some breakfast, or you'll be late!"

I ate as quickly as possible, which wasn't hard since it was pancakes and orange juice, my favorite breakfast. My mom used to joke that for first thing I ate was a mashed up pancake that she had made for me. I grabbed my backpack and took a deep breath.

"Just another regular day of school, another ordinary day."

But like on a math test, I'm always wrong.

* * *

><p>The school bus screeched to a halt right in front of me and the doors opened with a jerky motion. Immediately I plugged my nose, but it was too late. Sour rubber and sweaty socks flooded into my sinuses. I tried not to look pale as I climbed the stairs up into the bus. People were arm wrestling, listening to iPods while singing along to various pop songs. I would actually enjoy listening to people sing, but not these people. They sounded like they were trying to sing soprano while getting strangled by a heavyweight boxer. Other people were punching each other, stealing homework, or gossiping about who likes who and all of that other garbage. Yup... Seems like everythings normal here. I sat down next to one of my friends, Conner, he was currently playing a videogame on his iPhone.<p>

"Hey," Conner blasted an alien, "did you bring your liquified baby-bottle of pancakes today?"

"Shut up man, what game is that? It seems pretty interesting."

"Oh, its Alien Blaster." He picked up some sort of power up, and progressed to level 97.

"Wow… Creative name."

An alien jumped on Connor's character, and there was a sad, _boop, boop, boop. _

He rolled his eyes and sighed, and didn't talk to me after that.

I turned towards the window, gazing outside the misty, rock-hard plastic. Being in mid-November, nothing looked happy.

Clouds covered up the morning sun, letting no light or warmth in, the fog drifted aimlessly around the rooftops going several different directions, like lost dust bunnies under a bed. Street lamps attempted to hide from the drizzle, flickering dimly, but only succeeded in making the scene look even more dismal. The once bustling outdoor cafes were all closed now, their red and green umbrellas closed and dripping rain onto black, carefully crafted tables. I listed the endless train of shops that pass by: Nordstrom, Rite Aid, Subway, a Burger King.

I was about to turn away from the window, something caught my eye. The QFC sign. Why was it dyed black? No… It looked like a glowing shadow. But it was in the light right at the sign. And the "shadow" had an odd malevolent feel to it. The more I looked at it, the more I felt it was looking at me. I shivered, even though it was about as hot as a sauna in the bus.

Time seemed to slow down, the bus didn't seem so loud anymore, the cafes some how managed to look even sadder. I watched in horror as the shadow on the QFC sign writhed and twisted like a snake about to strike.

Then, a voice spoke, like cat claws on a chalkboard "Come to the dimension of Pokemon little boy, see if you can stop me…"

Time unfroze, the sounds of kids screaming as some 8th grader stole their Star Wars lunch box became clearer.

I shivered, even though the bus was very warm. What the heck was going on?

I looked back at the QFC sign, the shadow had disappeared, like nothing had happened.

I sat very still for the rest of the bus ride, not daring to look outside again.

* * *

><p>Every single period I went to, I couldn't focus on anything the teachers said, that voice I heard on my head kept repeating the same message over and over again. Drowning out the teachers, getting me into some serious primetime trouble. I got sent to three detentions, had to stand in front of the class two times, and got sent out into the hallway once. And I had only finished five periods, when there were six in total! My day sucked, but things were about to get a little strange.<p>

The last and worst period. Gym class.

"Okay, you little dumplings! Today you are in for a big surprise!" shrieked Coach Muzinic,

"Oh, whoopee. We love your big surprises." muttered Ryan, my other friend, "I can't wait."

"Today I'm breaking national laws!" the Coach continued, "We're playing dodgeball!"

Everybody groaned, except the school bully Butch, who was whooping with happiness. We had played dodgeball before, and after that, out of a class of eighteen kids, there were two twisted limbs, one black eye, three bruises, and about twenty band-aids. I had even heard rumors about a person breaking his arm when landing on the ground too hard. The only one uninjured was Coach Muzinic of course.

Before I could even step onto my side of the gym, I was cornered by the school bully, Butch.

Butch was someone you would find hanging out in dark alleys, a person who would rob somebody when they weren't looking. He had shaggy dark hair, with eyes the color of obsidian. He was wearing a black shirt, with a overly detailed skull and crossbones on it. His face had a few pimples and he was already growing some facial hair. He wouldn't have looked very intimidating if he wasn't 6 feet tall. He towered over most teachers, and made the staff uneasy.

"River, you are totally going to die today." he cracked his knuckles, "Maybe I'll even knock out some of your teeth."

"Watch your mouth Butch, do you want to taste bathroom soap again?" Just thinking of that memory made me smirk. About two months ago Butch had cornered me in the bathroom and I had shoved bathroom soap down his mouth. Ryan, Conner and I had all laughed about it, but got our shares of noogies and wedgies.

His face went beet red as he balled his fists, "Just wait till dodgeball shorty, and you'll be the one who should watch _his_ mouth."

"We'll see about that."

The coach spilled the dodgeballs into the center of the gym, one of them clanked but no one paid any attention. Most of the people were cowering behind mats, curled up into balls, or too busy screaming their heads off. But Conner, Ryan and I were probably the only ones that would stand up against Butch.

The coach raised his whistle to his lips and yelled "And… _TWEET!" _

Chaos spread instantaneously as the on the other team hurled the dodgeballs towered us, within seconds, all of the dodgeballs were on our side, except the one Butch was holding.

"Hey shorty!" He called, "I saved this one just for you! Open wide!"

"_Uh oh." _I thought, "_This is it." _

I desperately dove to the side but Butch knew I might do that. He chucked the ball so fast it seemed to smoke.

It hit me in the head and I immediately blacked out.

* * *

><p>I woke up, my head ringing like a church bell. I felt like floating on the ocean's surface. I stood up, which felt weird because I weighed almost nothing now.<p>

I jumped, because I really was in the ocean. Blue water stretched on endlessly, I gulped. "How the heck did I get here?" I said aloud.

"Because I brought you boy..." it was the same scraping voice I had heard on the bus! "Amuse me, show me you can stop me..."

His voice brought back all of the scary things I had seen, and magnified it. Cold fear washed in to my body, making me want to crawl into the fetal position.

"Do you see this ocean? This peaceful, beautiful ocean?" the voice said in disgust as if peaceful and beautiful were swear words, "This shall all change... Soon..."

The world turned upside down, the sapphire blue water turned an inky black, the blue sky turned purple, and the sun turned red as fresh blood.

"I... shall... consume..." the voice rasped, "I must... darken the skies..."

The sky turned an even more horrifying color of purple, the entire sky twisted and writhed, the ink water froze, turning the ocean into one huge black shadow.

The sun blinked off, the sky turned black, and all that was left was pure black, an endless abyss of shadows."

Suddenly there was a sound like paper being ripped, I looked up and saw something that sliced a hole in the sky, letting light and warmth shine through. A golden bubble like a hamster ball descended from the sky and landed in front of me.

"You shall wake now. " Said someone, it wasn't the other voice, this one was deep and melodious, like he was shouting through a megaphone, "Wake and _Expel the dark." _

The hamster ball rolled toward me, and before I could run away, the golden bubble engulfed me. I was inside the bubble.

Then, the bubble shot skyward, I screamed as a flopped down on the bottom of my bubble, my ears popped, my ears rang. My last thought before blacking out was _Seriously? Holy Hamster ball?_

* * *

><p>"Hey, Buizel wake up! Are you ok? Hey! Wake up!"<p>

My eyes fluttered open, I was on a beach, lying face first in the sand. Not knowing where I was. In fact, I couldn't seem to remember anything. Hands were pushing and shoving me around getting my eyes filled with sand. I lifted my head and the pushing stopped.

"Oh thank Arceus you're awake! I was just taking a… um, a walk and I see an unconscious Buizel lying on the ground!"

I got up, offended.

Looking right at me, with a relieved expression on her face, was a Chimchar. A real Chimchar.

"Um…" I pointed stupidly to the Chimchar, my mouth hanging open, "You're a flaming chimp."

""Uh, yeah, I'm a Chimchar to be exact though."

"Um… Cool?" I said, still trying to process the fact that I was talking to a monkey. And… I could understand the monkey. And… the monkey could understand me. And the monkey was on fire.

My mind was about as messed up and jumbled was a 1000 piece puzzle.

I fidgeted with my hands, I twisted my index finger, then I felt something strange., Ssomething fuzzy was in my hands! Looking down, and saw that I didn't have hands any more. I had paws! To make things worse, a soft layer of orange fur covered my paws.

I nearly jumped out of my skin, or fur. Whatever.

"But I'm..., I'm like a human. I'm not an orangutan!" I muttered, half to my-self.

"Um, yeah. Maybe you're not okay,?" the Chimchar tilted her head sideways, "But you look like you've seen a Gastly or something."

"A Gastly?" The puzzle in my head jumbled up a bit more, "Sounds like a digestive problem."

The Chimchar puffed out her cheeks as if to stop laughter, but couldn't hold it in. She threw back her head and started to laugh, a nice laugh, one that almost made me feel good.

"Gastly? A digestive problem?" She laughed a little bit more, "You know Buizel, you should talk to an actual Gastly if you want to know that!"

"How would I talk to a digestive problem?"

"Silly Buizel, I would think you would know what a Gastly was!" She talked to me like my name was Buizel or something.

"Uh… my name isn't Buizel."

She snickered as if my complete confusion was amusing, which it probably was. "No, I mean you are a Buizel. Look at yourself."

"No way." I looked down, and sure enough, I was a Buizel.

"Oh my god. this isn't right."

My brain just started to comprehend what happened. I had turned into a Pokemon.

"But I was like a human, like a minute ago." I said, "I wasn't a sea weasel!"

"Yeah, well now you are!" The Chimchar said cheerfully, "Go ahead and scream."

I did.


	2. The Toxic Duo

"Just like two seconds ago, I was a human! I exclaimed I swear!" I looked at my newly acquired otter arms, with their orange fur and the little blue fins on my elbows.

Chimchar craned her head around to get a better look at me, "Maybe, but no matter how much I look at you, I see a regular Buizel."

Her intense staring makes me a little self-conscious, but I shrugged it off.

"So," She asked me, "Where did you come from? I haven't seen you around here."

I confidently opened my mouth to respond, but then stopped. I didn't really know where I came from.

I desperately grappled for my memories of my friends and my family, but their faces were getting fainter and fainter.

"I… I don't know."

"So you've had amnesia? Did you hit your head?"

"No! Of course not!" I pressed my paws to my temples, "I don't know! Maybe I did, but I don't think so."

The Chimchar looked at me like I had just switched to speaking Japanese. She was about to say something, but suddenly, a rustling noise came from the bushes.

"Who's there?" I yelped in a not so brave way, "Come out!"

The Chimchar suddenly cried out in pain, and rocketed forward, crashing straight into me.

She scrambled up, "Who did-," Her words faltered. Standing in front of her were two poison type pokemon, which I recognized as a Seviper and a Toxicroak.

"I guess we'll be taking that!" The Toxicroak smoothly bent down and grabbed a small, jagged gemstone.

"H-h-hey! That's mine! Give it back!" She tentatively held out her hand expectantly.

"Or what?" The Seviper sneered, "You'll knock us out?"

"Um…"

"Wow! I knew you were a coward, but I never thought you would be this hopeless!" The Toxicroak laughed, and ran off toward a small cave next to the beach, Seviper following close behind.

"My Relic Gemstone… they stole it…" She looked close to tears, but she hid it pretty well.

"We'll get it back," I said confidently. Even though I had some amnesia, I remembered some things. Like, bullies are not cool, and brussel sprouts taste horrible. Whatever those were.

Chimchar just stared at me as if I had just grown a large hairy wart on my head, "But… aren't you scared?"

"Nah," I replied casually, "I have a feeling I've stood up to bullies a lot in my past."

"Oh yeah!" She points at me, "I forgot to ask you your name!"

I thought about it, my name was...

"River, my name is River."

She grinned, "Well, I'm Ember, pleased to meet you."

We plunged into the cave.

When you say cave, you think of dark passageways and stalactites hanging from the ceiling, not a hollow stone maze. This place looked like an old tortoise shell that had been abandoned a zillion years ago, and pokemon decided to make their home in it. There were plenty of holes in the ceiling of the "cave" so finding your way around wasn't hard either. What also made things easier were the bullies stupidity. The floor was made out of soft silky sand, so you could clearly see where they were going. Apparently, they had addressed the problem, and tried to cover it up, but only succeeded in making marks in the sand that looked like someone was trying to catch a mouse covered in grease.

Several Pokemon looked at us strangely, as if visitors at this place was rare, but I didn't care. After wandering around in the dusty "cave" for a while, the tracks led to an actual cave, leading down into an inky, black hole.

"Uh, is it a good idea to go down into there?" Ember tapped my shoulder, "Like, maybe we should just… you know."

I stared at her, "You mean not show those punks who's boss? Not get back that rock they stole, oh, um, what did they steal?"

Ember made a circle with her fingers, "My Relic Gemstone, at least that's what I call it. It doesn't look like much, just a ruby, but when you look at the top, it has a really interesting pattern on the top."

"What kind of pattern?" I asked, mystified, but she just shook her head.

"I can't describe it, but it's like a really mysterious pattern, and it looks as if It were made a long time ago." Her eyes shone with excitement, "Imagine what kind of secrets it could hold! It could be the key to a completely different area we haven't explored yet! Just think-"

She could have gone on for hours, but I interrupted.

"Uh... yeah, but even if it's the key to some unexplored place, it will never happen if we don't get it back from... uh, what are their names?

But Ember didn't seem to hear that last part, " Your right, River! I have to focus on getting it back first!" And with that, she ran forward, straight into the darkness.

"Wait! Aw geez..."

By the time I caught up to her, she was in a fierce battle with a Pokemon that looked a hermit crab with red piercing eyes.

She kept shooting embers at the creature, but it didn't seem to be doing much damage.

"Hey! Mr. Crab! Cut it out!" I said,

The Pokemon turned, and that just gave her enough time to get in close and punch the thing in the face. It hissed and fell to the ground and closed its eyes.

"Woah, did you just kill it?"

"No, it just fainted, thats all."

That didn't reassure me much but I didn't really have the time to think about it.

The cave was much darker than "Beach Cave" and finding where the bullies were was harder. Every sound echoed off the walls, making everything seem ten times louder, the Pokemon were more fierce, defending their little alcoves in the walls, but none of them attacked.

"Hey!" Ember cried, "Look! Light!"

She was right. There was a opening in the cave into a small pit, with ocean water lapping against the small sand beach. You could see the sun setting in the opening casting a warm orangey glow against the pit walls. What ruined the view were two Pokemon, mumbling and growling while they crouched over something.

"Hey!" I yelled, they turned and a look of absolute shock washed into their faces. "Give back Ember's Relic Gemstone! Its really important to her! Or, or I'll teach you a lesson!"

"Oh!" the frog like Pokemon said, "How rude of you to barge in and yell at us. And speaking of rude, I forgot to introduce myself. I'am Toxic.

"And I'm Jaws." the snake hissed. "Pleased to bite you."

I charged.

I realized several things as I charged the bullies,

One, I didn't know how to fight

Two, What I was doing might get my face punched inside out.

Three, I was going to get my face punched inside out.

The Toxicroak grinned, "Ahh, so this is a brave one! Well, bravery won't get you anywhere this time!"

He raised his hand, and the needle sharp red bone glowed purple with poison. He thrust his fist toward me, and I ducked, and threw sand in his eyes. Simple, not a real move, but still effective.

"Arg!" He stumbled, clutching his eyes and fell backward into the water.

Jaws came after me. His tail soaked in venom. I was out of balance, so there was no way I could dodge. I didn't need to. Ember rushed forward and intercepted the blow with her fist, punching upward, shielding me from harm. Things were actually looking pretty good, when suddenly, Toxic flew out from nowhere and slammed into Ember.

"You can turn invisible? No fair!" I said under my breath.

I charged Toxic and punched him in the gut, then kicked him in the face as hard as I could.

He fell backwards flat on his back, but he was no where near down.

He sprang up like a frog (but I guess since he actually was a frog, then that was kind of obvious), and charged at me. He put me in a headlock, with my face, right in his armpit.

"You think your so powerful, Hah!" He pointed his razor sharp hand to my throat.

My arms were pinned down, my legs were flailing around in the air, like wheat in a hurricane. Obviously sand wasn't going to save me this time.

I looked down into Toxic's slimey armpit, which trust me, isn't something you want to look at.

Then I got an idea.

I could feel Toxic's cold finger touching my neck now, the poison slowly burning away at my fur. I didn't have much time, so I quickly kicked my plan into action. I took a deep breath, and blew as hard as I could.

"Gah!" Toxic sprung up into the air, releasing his grip around my neck. I fell backwards on my back exhausted by the effort. I felt like someone had just drained all of the water from my body.

"_Thats strange, all I did was blow into Toxic's armpit, nothing special right?" _Then I realized why. Toxic was sopping wet, from his disgusting armpit, to his glowering frog face, which was not much better.

I felt sick. Did I just barf onto Toxic's armpit? Gross.

I didn't have much time to think about it because Toxic charged, I got ready to dodge his attack, but then he vanished into shadow, leaving nothing behind.

I whirled around but it was too late, he crashed into me with full force and knocked me to the ground.

"Hey!" Someone yelled from the other side of the clearing, "Hey STUPID!" I realized it was Ember, trying to pry Toxic's attention from me.

I heard the unmistakable sound of a fist uppercutting into something.

_Crack. _

"AUGHHH!" Toxic flew backwards, and landed splat on top of me, knocking the wind out of me.

I pushed his slimey body off of mine and tried to ignore the slime that was now plastering my fur, it felt like I had just dipped into a cold pool.

Meanwhile, Ember wasn't so lucky with Jaws, everytime she tried to get in close, his snapping teeth would bite at her, but if she dodged, his tail would swing back around and hit her.

Suddenly, Jaws got a lucky hit with his Poison Tail. Ember flew across the Pit and slammed into the wall.

"No!" I cried, but I was too far away to help, I felt my body lighten as I charged Jaws, right before Jaws was about to finish Ember I slammed into the snake, making him crash into the wall and drop to the ground, unconscious.

"Hah… Hah… We did it, Ember panted, "We did it…"

I was breathing hard to, after using that attack, I felt worn out, as if were wearing a fifty pound metal jacket.

"W-wheres your Relic Fragment? Let's grab it and get out quick before those brutes get up again." I said, breathing hard.

She stumbled up to Toxic, who was still holding the piece of stone, and held it up triumphantly, "I got it!"

I got up and brushed off my fur, "You mean, WE got it."

She grinned at me but then she winced and fell down and felt her back where she had smashed into the wall.

"Your hurt, lets get out of here so we can check that out at the hospital." I said,

She got shakily back up to her feet, "You always say the strangest things, what is a hospital?"

"Its a place to get wounds treated, come on! There has to be one!"


	3. A Plant Tries to Strangle me

**Hey everyone! Dogemaster here.**

**So in this little update, I'll just be explaining a few things about my fanfiction, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Expelling the Dark.**

**One thing. This is not a retell of the story plot of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky. If you look in Chapter two, you'll notice that the Toxic Duo steals a relic GEMSTONE, not the relic fragment. It will play a different roll in this story. DUN DUN DUN**

**I decided that I would make up my own little story, which means that chapters will be harder and will take longer for me to publish. I really hope you guys will like it.**

**On the other hand, I might make a sequel to this story, PMD - Saviors of Space. If you guys want it. You bet I will make it.**

**Anyway, CHAPTER 3! YAY! Review, fav and follow everybody!**

* * *

><p>After navigating outside Beach Cave, using the Toxic Duos footprints as guidance, we were back onto the beach, and a small path led up to bustling town, with, guess what? More talking pokemon.<p>

The town was made up of winding dust and gravel path, on each side of the path, various shops advertised food, goods, and other things that I didn't even recognize. I watched as a Riolu purchased a whole box of bright orange gummies, and stumbled down the path, gummies flying everywhere.

Ember and I walked right past them, who was now leaning heavily on my shoulder."

"Remember Ember, I'm not your personal walking cane."

"I know…"

I kind of wandered around for a little bit. Since being new to this town, I really didn't have any idea where a hospital could be. Most of the

Pokemon who saw us looked at me strangely, which was no surprise because I lugging around a nearly unconscious Chimchar.

"Are you looking for Blissey Day-Care?" A voice squeaked below me.

It scared me so bad I dropped Ember who fell on the ground with a Fuwmp.

"Who said that?" I looked left and right, and then down. Right in front of me, a little Happiny danced in front of me, waving her pudgy little arms like a windmill. trying to get my attention.

"Are you looking for Blissey Day-Care?" she asked again, going on her tip-toes so she could get a better look at me.

"Yes, this Chimchar got injured in a fight, we need help." I said.

"Ok! I'll carry her for you!"

"But you can't… woah."

The tiny little thing hoisted Ember onto her head with one arm and skipped off, humming a tune that sounded like Mary had a little lamb.

The pink tent was surprisingly big, at least thirty soft moss beds with several patients lounging around in them.

Ember was already placed in a bed, where a Chansey was feeding her various berries, while a Jigglypuff sang softly next to her.

The same Happiny skipped up to me, "Sir? This Chimchar will stay in our care for a while, you are free to go, don't worry, we got it under control." She gave me a thumbs up and skipped off, did a somersault, refilled a sick Riolu's drink, and disappeared into the tent.

I didn't really know what to do, so I wandered outside, and checked out some of the shops. The little community of pokemon was a straight street, going left and right, with colorful shops here and there.

"Oran berries! Oran berries! " A Bellossom yelled, "Fresh cheap juicy berries!" She danced around, waving a basket, obviously stuffed with goodies.

I didn't know why, but for some reason I could name all of the pokemon in the square. Maybe it was that psycho transformation thing that caused it. I looked around the central square. Pokemon bustling about, rushing to go do some important things, friendly shop owners selling merchandise to customers. It all seemed so familiar, but why? Why would a amnesiac Buizel feel drawn to this? My thoughts were interrupted when something slammed into the side of my head, like a ton of bricks but even worse. Like spiked bricks with poison tips. The moment it connected with my head, pins and needles shot across my head, burning like fire.

I fell to the ground, breathing hard. Something wrapped around my neck, and hauled me to my feet. At first I thought it was Jaws or Toxic coming for revenge but when I opened my eyes, it was an even more terrible sight.

A bright emerald green Snivy stood before me, his leafy tail still radiating a nuclear green. A vine protruded from its neck, and was currently strangling me. His deep brown eyes seemed to steam and burn with anger.

"W-what were you doing?!" The vine around my neck tightened, "W-what were you doing?!"

I tried to speak but all that came out was "Garble, agh, Garble."

"Oh, sorry, I forgot that I was trying to strangle you to death." But he didn't let go of his hold, he only loosened his grip just enough for me to speak.

"Agh," I muttered. "What was I doing?" I tried to pry the vines off of my neck, but the Snivy I don't know gesture.

"For… for injuring Ember!" A crowd was starting to gather, staring in shock at the Snivy, "I heard from Toxic and Jaws, you stole her Relic Gemstone! And then beat her up!"

I felt a surge of anger, like a rising wave about to crash down on an unsuspecting person, "I wasn't the one who did that! Those pokemon you talked to, those are the ones who hurt her!"

The rage from the Snivy's face evaporated, and turned into a face of complete disbelief.

"Which means, you weren't carrying her off to beat her up some more? Or do something else bad?" The vines unwrapped themselves and retreated back into the Snivy's neck. Like a bad dog slinking away from scene.

I coughed, "Uh, yeah, otherwise, why would I send her to the daycare and act like her walking cane?"

The crowd around us mumbled and slowly dispersed, seeing how the fight and the action had stopped.

The snivy bowed apologetically to me, "I'm really sorry dude," He looked up and stuck out his hand, "I'm Emerald, I've been friends with Ember since forever."

"I'm River. " I shook his hand, "I've been a pokemon since an hour ago."

Then I realized how stupid that sounded.

Emerald raised an eyebrow, "You've been a pokemon? Since an hour ago? What were you before?"

I wanted to punch Emerald in the face, this was hard enough for me. First I get sent to a psychotic world filled with talking pokemon, then I get in some fight, and now I have to explain what I was before, without knowing who I was?

Instead, I shook my head, "It's nothing, I'm just a little… frazzled.", I rubbed my head, trying to put out the nonexistent fire that was burning away at my head.

"Anyways," Emerald sighed, "I've just been really worried about her, we were going to go a place to sign up as explorers, because pokemon have been going missing more and more often. Also Its been Embers and me dream since we were first born!" He started walking toward the daycare so I followed.

"Explorers?"

Emerald slapped his head, "Right… I forgot you've only been a Buizel for an hour, sorry. I'll let Ember fill you in on that stuff later, she's the expert. Anyways, once she walked onto the recognition gate to this place she and I wanted to go, you see… theres this pokemon underground, and he kind of identifies you by your footprint. She got startled and ran off…"

"So you've been worried that she went missing because of all of those weird disappearances that have been happening lately."

"Exactly," Emerald nodded his head, "Thanks for finding her."

We arrived at the daycare, the giant blissey tent cheerfully smiling down at us, Ember was standing at the entrance, a crazy grin on her face.

"Emerald! You won't believe what happened today!" She ran up and bounced on her feet like she had just drank 17 double espressos."I found this Buizel at the beach, unconscious! And- Oh River you're here too!"

I shot her a puzzled look, "You mean you didn't see me just now. Like your a little woozy in the head? Are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm fine! Lets go River! We've got to show you around this place!" not waiting for an answer, she dashed off yelling "Come on Slowpokes!"

"We'd better catch up to her," Emerald tapped my shoulder, "Playing Search and Find with Ember is NOT fun.

It turns out that we were too late. Ember had already bounced somewhere else on her caffeinated rump, probably still yelling "Hey! Hurry up already!"

"Ember!" Emerald called, "Where'd you go? Um… Lets see… she could be going to the hideout, or the guild or Chinchou's photography, or Milktanks Ice Cream Parlor."

"Woah, slow down dude, she'll be fine." though I wasn't so sure myself. This was kind of weird because I had only met Ember only an hour ago, here I was, worrying about her.

"Lets check the Guild first," Emerald said, "Thats the most likely place she'll be at."

We probably searched for an hour or two looking up and down, trying to see any sign of a screaming monkey. I was about to suggest that we go to Beach Cave when Emerald pointed to a growing crowd, "What the heck is that?"

"We should probably check it out, maybe Ember got a heart attack from drinking too much coffee." I jogged ahead, hoping I was wrong.

We squeezed through the crowd, muttering "Excuse me", and "Pardon me" and finally got to the inner circle of pokemon.

Inside the circle, were two Pokemon, both looking very flustered. A Luxray was trying to find an opening in the crowd while a Lucario answered question after question from a very hyper Chimchar.

"How often do you go out on explorations? Have you ever stolen from Wigglytuff's stash of Perfect Apples?" Ember belted out the questions like a football coach yelling numbers.

"Um, I'd say we go out to a dungeon about two per day-" The Lucario tried to answer, but Ember interrupted again, "What about Ruby? Your other teammate?I heard that-"

The Luxray winced like he had just been punched. The Lucario looked pained, but he still calmly spoke, "She's at base, waiting, we have to go."

Without waiting for the crowd to part for them, they both jumped, sailed over the heads of the Pokemon, and ran off down the street we came.

Ember looked a little confused, but she quickly saw us, and bounced over.

"Did you see that? That was Team Aegis! You know, like the famous team of Treasure town!" She said, "I can't believe I just met them!"

"Um… yeah." I said, "But you shouldn't run off like that! You worried Emerald, again!"

"Sorry," She looked down at her feet, "I just got a little excited."

"A little?!" I exclaimed, "How about a lot excited. What did you eat today?"

Right after I said that, my stomach growled, I hadn't even realized how hungry I was, I hadn't eaten, in… I didn't even remember how long.

Ember and Emerald stared at me for about 2 seconds, then laughed.

"You have to be hungry," Emerald said, "I'm hungry from chasing Ember around all day"

"How about we go to Slurpuff's Diner?" Get some berries to eat?" asked Ember, "I'm hungry too."

* * *

><p>Slurpuffs Diner was without a doubt, one of the strangest buildings I've ever seen.<p>

The entire building was shaped like a huge heart shaped berry, colored an almost gaudy pink. An even bigger statue of a Slurpuff towered over the berry, licking its lips like it couldn't wait to dig in.

The moment Ember pushed the door open, I didn't know what surprised me more, the smells or the diner itself.

What was wrong with this place? The entire diner was colored bright pink, from the curved walls, to the floor, even the silverware. Or would it be pinkware? I didn't know, and I didn't care because my eyes were burning from staring at the walls for too long. But the smell of the food made up for the horrible color choices. Sweet and spicy aromas wafted all across the diner, and the sounds of cooking came from the back room. Square tables were placed higglety pigglety around the diner. The ordering counter was at the very back of the diner, so you had to wind your way around the tables, making a line that resembled a snake. Pokemon were seated at each table, eating their food and chatting.

Again I had that weird deja-vu moment, this seemed so familiar, like before I became a weasel, I had lived in this kind of environment. But why?

Ember marched straight up to the counter, "Could I have three Oran and Sitrus smoothies and two Super Berry Deluxe salads, and one Extra Spicy Tamato Berry salad?" She sounded like she had said that about a million times.

Slurpuff nodded, "Right away! Swirlix!" She said in a sing-song voice, chop up these berries for three O&S smoothies, Ok?"

"On it!" A small happy voice sing-songed back,

"And tell the others to make two SBD salads and one ESTB salad."

"Okay!" The same voice replied,

"Great!" Slurpuff said, then turned her attention back to us, "You guys can take Table #20."

Ember said, "Come on, lets get our table, our dishes should arrive shortly."

We made our way to our bright pink table, and sat down, Emerald leaned forward, "So," He asked like he was interrogating me, "You told me you've been a Pokemon, for about an hour. What's up with that?"

I didn't feel like lying this time, so I told them what I knew, "I'm… not normal, I don't think I originated from this place, though I'm not sure what or who I was before. All I can remember is my name. River. Though I do have these strange deja-vu feelings. But thats it."

"I found him all cuddled up at the beach, just lying there like he was taking a nice nap." Ember told Emerald, "We talked, suddenly and Toxic and Jaws stole my Relic Gemstone. Then they ran into Beach cave."

Emerald winced, "Beach cave? That super dark cave? You went in there River?"

"Yeah," I said, "Stealing isn't right, I got this weird feeling I stood up to mean people-" I stopped, "People…"

"People?" Emerald asked, "What are people? Do you remember something?"

The gears in my head began to turn, something clicked and I gasped, "I- I remember something!"

Ember looked mystified, "What?"

"I think I remember what I was before!" I said, "I was a people!"

Again, I realized how stupid that sounded.

Instead of laughing, or calling me a freak, Emerald just stared up at me, with wonder in his cocoa brown eyes, "A people…"

Instead of commenting on my revelation about being a people, Ember grinned and pointed behind me, "Look! Our food!"

Hovering toward us, was our food, just floating toward us like very tasty ghosts. I didn't know what was doing it, but I didn't really care, the food smelled wonderful.

"Seriously?" I said, "U.F.D's? Unidentified Flying dishes?"

I grabbed the nearest one to me, a platter of 6 bright red berries.

"Um, River? I don't think thats a good-" it was too late, I had already bit into the berry.

I might as well gargled lava for mouth-wash, fire spread all around my mouth, burning my tongue, smoke seemed to boil out of my nostrils.

Ember calmly reached across the table and plucked the platter out of my hand, and popped a berry into her mouth, "I think its mild." She teased me.

Meanwhile, the berries juices seemed to burn away my mouth, I grabbed Emerald's smoothie, which he was not happy about, and guzzled it down.

"Hey!" Emerald protested.

The burning stopped, and I could breathe normally again.

"Oh my god… what… what was that?" I tried to swallow, but the berry had turned my mouth into a desert. My tongue felt like sandpaper.

"Tamato berries." Emerald grabbed my smoothie, which I let him have, "Spiciest berry in the world."

Ember stuffed another Tamato berry into her mouth, "Fire types usually love these berries."

"So this is mine," I grabbed a plate of blue and yellow berries. "Sitrus and oran?"

"Yeah, and don't worry, those are no where near spicy." Emerald picked up a Sitrus berry and bit into it.

"Thank guys, and um, why is the pinkware shivering?"

The pinkware on the table was starting to shake, like it was getting to a scary part of a movie.

A sound like huge footsteps shook the diner, getting louder and closer.

Too late I realized what was going to happen, I turned around just in time to see the door blasted off its hinges.


End file.
